Question about cold contacting students/faculty

Hey everyone,

TLDR: Is it weird or frowned upon to "cold contact" email students or faculty about personal experience at a university?

I'm active duty in the Army. Planning on separating from the military in December of this year. I am planning to finish my associates degree, and to apply to university for a bachelor's degree in physics. My end goal is to complete a doctorate in physics, though I haven't decided on a specific field.

The physics department of the university I want to apply to is capacity constrained. I have emailed the general admissions for the university, as well as the specific department for advice as to how to be more competitive in being accepted.

I am also very interested in learning more about the field, and get a more intimate view into the school from students themselves; their personal experience in education, their perspective of the school, faculty, and insight on what my eventual field of interest might be. I plan on making time to attend an open house, but I've found that speaking to people one on one gets a lot better information for these sorts of things.

Am I being overzealous if I were to cold contact (email) grad students or faculty to get their opinions on how to be the best I can be? I don't want to be a weirdo.

Thanks all.

Submitted February 09, 2022 at 08:43PM by krocketable https://ift.tt/eM6kBNu